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Re:Why I’m quitting GMO research by kazinator on Thursday March 29, 2018 @04:12PM (#16710628)
> That's where you realize "GMO" is meaningless, and stop using that term.

It's not meaningless at all. GMO could be used maliciously. A tomato could be produced which deliberately make a protein such that a fraction of a milligram can kills. That is not likely to happen with random evolution.

"GMO" is just as meaningful as "infected executable".

> You are both.

Completely besides the point; which wasn't about human versus molecules, but rather that random evolution did a pretty good job there.

Re:Why I’m quitting GMO research by smsm42 on Friday March 30, 2018 @02:31AM (#16714157)
> GMO could be used maliciously.

Anything can be used maliciously.

> That is not likely to happen with random evolution.

That is happening all the time with evolution. Hundreds of types of plants produce poisons. In fact, producing various poisons is the plant's main weapon in the struggle for survivial - it has no claws and can not run, so it's either making itself completely indigestible (like trees) or making itself unfit or at least hard for eating. Like tomatoes, which were, like all nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes, etc.) originally highly toxic. Only we humans convinced tomatoes and potatoes not to kill us, by genetically modifying them since at least 500BC. Of course, we could develop ones that kill too. Or we could worry about grocers to just shooting you - if they'd be willing to kill you with tomatoes, why not with rifles? Of course, in reality nobody tries to kill anyone, so worrying about weaponized GMO is pointless - if you wanted to kill people, nobody would bother with GMO, there are much cheaper ways.

Re:Why I’m quitting GMO research by tedunangst on Thursday March 29, 2018 @10:09PM (#16713108)
> A tomato could be produced which deliberately make a protein such that a fraction of a milligram can kills. That is not likely to happen with random evolution.

That's a strange claim to make about a member of the nightshade family.